Electric oven with multiple broil heaters and method for preheating the electric oven

Abstract

A electric oven is provided that includes a body, a cooking chamber located within the body for receiving food, the cooking chamber having an upper surface, a lower surface, and a rear surface joining the upper surface to the lower surface, at least one of a convection heater located at the rear surface of the cooking chamber and a bake heater located at the lower surface of the cooking chamber, and at least two broil heaters located at the upper surface of the cooking chamber, each of the at least two broil heaters being individually operable. Methods for preheating the electric oven are also provided.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO A RELATED APPLICATION[0001]The present application claims priority to Korean Application Number 10-2007-0085766, filed Aug. 24, 2007, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates generally to an electric oven, and more particularly, to an electric oven that has at least two broil heaters and a method for preheating an electric oven capable of reducing the preheating time by using one or more of the two broil heaters.[0004]2. Description of Related Art[0005]In general, an electric oven is a cooking appliance for heating food with dry heat, particularly after sealing the food in the cooking appliance. The dry heat may be provided using various kinds of heaters including a ceramic heater, a sheath heater, a halogen heater, and a high frequency generator (microwaves) that are operated by electricity. The electric oven has a fast cooking speed an...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017]An object of the instant disclosure is to provide an electric oven that can not only complete preheating within a short time but also provide more uniform temperature distribution inside of a cooking chamber, and a method for preheating the electric oven within a short time.

Problems solved by technology

Although all of the heaters 81, 82, and 83 may be operated at the same time, this generally results in too much power consumption.

Also, when all the heaters are operated at the same time, the temperature of the cooking chamber is generally raised to an excessive level.

However, since the convection heater 83 generates little heat as compared to the broil beater 81, the preheating of the cooking chamber takes a relatively long time.

Also, since the temperature is rapidly raised only in the vicinity of the ceiling on which the broil heater 81 is located, there is a problem that the temperature distribution in the inside of the cooking chamber is not uniform.

In other words, while the broil heater 81 consumes much power as it generates large amounts of heat, it has a low efficiency for heating the inside of the cooking chamber to provide uniform temperature distribution.

The problem with preheating by the latter approach is that one heater is naturally cooled while the other heater is operated and thus additional power and time are consumed to reheat the cooled heater.

In addition, although it is possible to operate two or more heaters, including the bake heater, at the same time, it is difficult to operate two or more heaters for a long time since the power for operating the heaters should be distributed within the limit of the maximum wattage of the electric oven.

That is to say, there is a limitation in that the time for which the two or more heaters are operated at the same time is very short as compared to the total preheating time and one of the heaters should be operated in a low power level when the two heaters are operated at the same time.

Therefore, even with the method described above, the preheating cannot be completed within a short time and the waste of power becomes significant.

Images